Chris Scribe the current director of the Indian Teacher Education Progam (ITEP) at the University of Saskatchewan wants to fill a need for students as classes are cancelled across the country.

With the current recommendations for people to self-isolate and school closures, organizations cancelling events, and as parents are searching for educational opportunities for students Scribe wants to ensure that students have an outlet to continue to learn.

"We created an online learning classroom in light of everything that is happening right now we wanted to be responsive to the needs of our students and the learning that needs to continue to happen, and where students can click in and have certified teachers teaching lessons grade-specific."

Once the seed of the idea was planted Scribe put a call out for volunteers to teachers to see who would like to teach a lesson.  "We just had overwhelming support, the reach for this has exploded within a day and a half span we actually reached 35,000 people there is no turning back we have to move forward."

Currently, Scribe is receiving messages from across North America from volunteers who want to help with this new way of reaching out to students.

There have been offers from Oklahoma where one person has expressed interest in teaching bow making, a language revitalization teacher KANENTOGON Hemlock that will be helping from Kahnawake Mohawk Nation outside of Montreal and will be posting their video soon.  Scribe is overwhelmed by the support and knowing there is so much Indigenous knowledge that can be shared he is looking ahead at how to get people involved to help.

Along with working at the University of Saskatchewan Scribe is also an Executive Director of a non-profit organization called Think Indigenous every year they host an international conference as well offer Indigenous education initiatives.

Scribe has started a youtube channel called Think Indigenous - Online Inidenous Education K-8 Click Here as well they can be found on Facebook here. Seeing the positive response from people as long as the need is there Scribe will continue making these videos. As an educator for many years and with young children at home he sees the importance to continue teaching regardless of where they are.

Going through the situation the country and the world is currently in Scribe is choosing to see the positives and focus his energy on family, "The interesting thing about this is we are working from home and family is around and part of what we do, so it also means that the classroom is actually in the home and it's family inclusionary that's an amazing part of this that I didn't expect."

Scribe has been a teacher, a vice-principal, and a principal prior to his current role, and actually been out of the classroom since 2008, there were some nerves at first but he has found a revitalization for teaching and being there for his family and a part of their learning has grown his passion for teaching.

Scribe sees the importance to showcase Indigenous knowledge and how valuable that is to all people, infusing all of the lessons with Indigenous knowledge. Scribe believes that by creating spaces for all students to learn and see the value in that, people will start to build stronger relationships with one another and understand each other better.

The hope is that by coming together through education and creating those relationships that this will start to break down barriers and misconceptions and see people start to come together through education and the work the volunteers and educators are doing.

Scribe gets asked if this is for Indigenous kids only, the answer to that is absolutely not this is for everyone, any age that wants to learn and for those parents at home with their children to be able to share in this experience and with.